Dare To Be The Church

Several years ago, one of our senior leaders met with then Mayor Beutler. There were some things going on in our city and we just met to ask, “What can we do to help?” But it was very affirming that the first thing he affirmed is how much he appreciated, as the mayor, the many ways we, as a church, make our community better. That's what we want. As a result of who we are as the people 6

of God, we want to be better business owners. We want to be better employers. We want to be better employees. We want to be better neighbors. We want to be better teachers. We want to be better students. We want to be better citizens. So think of it this way. What we want is for every environment where someone from Lincoln Berean is, that that environment is better because you're there. These are hard times. There's a lot of conflict. There's a lot of anger. There are a lot of problems. But what would it be like if thousands of people in all these environments all over our community made those environments better simply because you're there?

Now part of the challenge is that we have a media and politicians who are determined to divide us up into sides and keep the conflict going. It's very frustrating because it is destroying people's lives. And sadly, a lot of Christians get sucked into that. And rather than those environments being better, they're just contributing to the problem. One of the challenges we've had as a church, for those of us who speak, is some people want to interpret everything we say, through the grid of COVID. So it doesn't matter what you say, they're trying to figure out, “What?” “Wait a minute.” “Did you say we should get the vaccine or shouldn't get the vaccine?” “Wait a minute, are you saying we should wear a mask or shouldn't wear a mask?” So just remember, there were lots of issues before COVID and there will be lots of issues after COVID. This is a difficult world.

Sadly, studies are showing many Christians today are choosing a church, not based on their theology, but rather on their politics. I just can't imagine how that grieves the heart of Jesus. I can say with great confidence, no one has stood on this stage over the last two years and told you what your opinion should be about vaccines or about masks. No one has! As a matter of fact, it’s just not how we do business. Let me explain it this way.

The vision is that we come together in order to know Jesus, in order to become like Him. That's what we're doing. We would call it discipleship. As a result, as you grow in your relationship with Jesus and become like Him—this is where it gets really crazy radical—we actually trust you. We trust you to go out into whatever environment you're in, to follow your conscience, to follow the leading of the Spirit, and you decide how to rightly represent Jesus in the environment you're in. There are lots of issues. Now we're not talking about things that are clearly biblically defined. There are just lots of issues that aren't. And part of what we have to accept is there is going to be quite a diversity of opinion. And that's okay. As a matter of fact, it's one of the things I love about Lincoln Berean. There is great diversity here. We've worked really hard to make this a safe environment for anyone to walk through the doors and pursue Jesus. As a result of that, you have quite a diversity of opinion. Good Christians can disagree on a lot of issues. The church has never been about uniformity. It's about unity—and we're unified in the person of Christ. It's not helpful to cast judgment on another Christian because they don't see something exactly the same way you do. Here's how those conversations often go. “Now I'm not judging...” but the very next sentence out of their mouth is a judgment. I guess we think if we say that, it's a pass to be judgmental. It's like you are judging. It's possible to be really good Christians and not necessarily see everything the same way.

 But there are two non-negotiables, where there is no wiggle room if we're going to be serious Christians. One is we must agree together that Jesus is the only hope of the world. I don't know how you could be a Christian and not understand that. And number two, our calling is to rightly represent Jesus in whatever environment we’re in. There's no wiggle room there. There's no margin.  - Bryan Clark

for disagreement there. As the church, we may have differences of opinion on lots of things, but we must agree together that Jesus is the only hope of the world. And we are called as a church to rightly represent Jesus in every environment we’re in. I can confidently say, if Jesus comes back next week, that's what matters most. There are lots of things that matter, but we can't lose sight of what ultimately matters most...if we're going to Dare to Be the Church.